FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to curling irons for shaping hair.
A hairdresser commonly shapes hair by first utilizing a curling iron with a barrel of large diameter such as 3/4 inch, to provide a lift or long gentle curvature to the hair which also adds to the "body" of the hair. He then typically changes to a curling iron with a barrel of smaller diameter to perform a curl operation to provide sharp curvature or curls at the end of the hair strands. In the lift operation he typically holds the curler with one hand and with the other hand winds the upper portions of a length of hair about the barrel and then pulls the barrel slowly downward along the length of the hair while allowing the wound hair to slip over the heated barrel so as to apply the same lift over the whole length of hair. Curling is done with a smaller size curling iron using either the same type of stroking operation or single settings for quite tight curls. In order to minimize the need for repeatedly changing from one size curling iron to another, the hairdresser may perform lift strokes to all or a large section of the hair of the client and then change to the smaller curling iron to perform the curl operation. However, there is still a need for a hairdresser to change curling irons and grasp and handle the clients hair many times.